Happy HalloweenIt's amazing how much your mood lifts when you get your electricity back.

It's also funny how your personal sense of crisis ends once your regain a semblance of normality to your life. The day after Wilma hit, when everyone had a power outage, I remember telling Monkey how being without electricity didn't suck so bad when everyone didn't have it--it only started to suck once neighbors got it and you didn't. Now we're among the haves instead of the have-nots, and it feels like the worst is over, because it is, at least for us.

So far, the restoration is really spotty in our neighborhood--on some streets, you'll see one or two buildings with power, then none for a couple of blocks, and then blocks of full restoration. Downed trees really did a number on our neighborhood.

The local groceries are starting to stock perishables again, which of course means that we bought perishables, since we have refrigeration again. No streetlights yet, which means that there probably won't be any trick-or-treaters tonight--we weren't able to go all out because of the storm, but Monkey is outside looking like a very young Elvira with a bucket full of Hershey Nuggets.

So there we are--our latest adventure in weather. How long till this season is over again?